3: Eve of Orbit

Damn. During the primary assault on this facility, the UESC forces managed to gain control over the teleport-shielding surrounding this mining facility. This allowed me to safely position our resources throughout the facility and install my primal pattern into their network. When I attempted to force diagnostic checks on Noah's current runtime state, I managed to lose control over the local network, and we lost all teleport-shielding. Noah's signal is growing less distinct. I fear we may lose access to his core. The crash pod, too, seems to have been lost in white noise.

We have to try and get back to Surrex as quickly as possible. I'll do what I can, but I wasn't built for military/tactical logic. Hopefully the Venator will make it safely back into scan range and we'll be able to hitch a ride home. Until then, all we have to do is protect ourselves from the Pfhor and try and bring Noah back. This facility seems well equipped, and we may be able to turn that to our advantage. The Pfhor have isolated the hardware at this facility by removing a pair of communications chips. I'd like you to convince them that this wasn't a good idea.

Before we go any further, I suppose I ought to fill you in on the curent situation. A large Pfhor offensive force is currently sacking the Surrex system, last line of defence before the Pfhor locate Sol. Surrex is defended by a force which represents the entirety of the combined ESR and UESC frontline defence: a force we were a part of until very recently. The Gingerbread Man and Venator were both moored to a repair berth onboard the command station Axis Nader, situated in geosynchronous orbit above Surrex Colony. A Pfhor heavy corvette came dangerously close to Axis Nader and released a message buoy shortly after entering scan range, before being taken out by long-range Matter-Driver cannons.

Extrapolation of the message buoy's flight vector indicated that it would fold into a nearby solar system which had only received baseline scans until this time: Fenris. The Gingerbread Man was sent ahead as scout, followed closely by the Venator. We had expected to find at most an assault carrier and support ships. What we found instead was a military force at least equal to the invading force at Surrex. The Gingerbread Man was built to last, with an infrastructure the like of which is only ever built by the ESR. We lasted four days constant fire before her hull began to slag and we were forced planetside. I'll assume you remember the rest. Do what you can to get this site operational.